COUNTERSTRIKE is a tragically forgotten British sci fi television series from 1969. Jon Finch (left) portrayed Simon King, an alien agent who worked for the Intergalactic Council. This council had sent him to Earth to protect it from a group of renegade aliens from a dying planet who wanted to conquer the Earth and make it their new home. Not the most original of premises, but that inimitable British panache breathed life into the series, which unfortunately ran for just ten episodes, one of which was preempted by a special about the British gangsters named the Krays and was never rescheduled. As with the iconic television series Doctor Who, many episodes of Counterstrike were wiped clean decades ago and only the series’ first four episodes have survived. Finch used his wits as well as a James Bondesque arsenal of clever alien weaponry to thwart Earth’s would-be conquerors each week. The Texas Rangers’s motto is “One riot, one ranger” and I guess the Intergalactic Council’s motto was “One invasion, one agent” since Simon was the only agent they sent to protect the unsuspecting denizens of Earth. Sort of a cross between the Roy Thinnes series The Invaders and the aforementioned Doctor Who (with overtones of the Star Trek episode about Gary Seven), Counterstrike is a lost television treasure waiting for its cult to find it. And if you’re wondering, the titles of the four surviving episodes are: King’s Gambit, Joker One, On Ice and Nocturne.
FOR MORE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION TREASURES, ESPECIALLY OF THE SCI FI GENRE, CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/forgotten-television/
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I am going to check this out. I love digging up old TV series…especially Sci-Fi. I was a big fan of the Invaders. Keep blogging!
Thank you very much for the comment!
Watch channel is currently airing the first Jon Pertwee Dr Who. It heavily plagiarises the first Counterstrike – as well as Quatermass 2!
That’s often the really regrettable thing about these forgotten shows – the way their recycled material is looked on as original because the earlier show has been neglected in the public memory.
hmm, I wonder if this is on netfix. I just finnished the last episode of ‘Red Dwarf’ last week. Ive been watching ‘the black adder’ its funny but I keep falling asleep to it.
I don’t know about Netflix, but you’d think somebody would release it on DVD. Just about ANYTHING science fiction sells. But, then, they dont even release the original 1950’s Quatermass television serials from the UK in Region 1 format. I have to buy them Region 2 and watch them on a computer. Thanks for the comment! Speaking of Black Adder, I always picture Rowan Atkinson as Dikaiopolis every time I reread The Acharnians by Aristophanes. But I’m kind of odd.
This blog is incredible. I could spend hours here reading about all these lost tv shows and teams and myths you write about.
Thank you very much! I appreciate it!
u should start ur own youtube channel with shows like this
Thanks for commenting! That’s something to think about!
I’m a huge fan of vintage British sci fi and never heard of this show til now. Awesome!
Glad I could help. Thanks for commenting!
I saw counterstrike as a child, knew what it had been about but couldnt remember the name. I also remember it having finished because of the Krays. I have searched all the internet to find this.
It was indeed an under rated series. I could be its cultie. Pity they dont make them like this one.
Thankyou
Thank YOU for commenting! Glad I could help! I also covered shows like Doomwatch, Mastermind, Department S, Crossbow, etc.
Cool show … and that guy looks kind of cute, from what you can see of him. I want a whole set including the lost episodes.
I agree, I wish the lost episodes would surface, too. I still hold out hope that maybe the one preempted by the Krays news special has been sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be rediscovered.
I really loved this series and couldnt wait every week to watch it.I remember he lived up a tree (house!!!) and had a girl side kick. A television showed him a link to his planet ,who was a girl i think,,, and some others came down from his planet to help him and they all looked like him ,much to the amazement of the side kick!!!!He also healed very quickly…Handy!!) and was lovely looking!!!!
Thanks for sharing this! Always glad to hear from fans who remember these shows!
These shows you talk about are always so cool but most of them are impossible to find. How do you do it?
It’s pretty difficult, let me tell ya!
One word: REBOOT!
You said it! It would probably do well.
An alien Fox Mulder!@
I thought Fox Mulder WAS an alien … oh. that’s right – he was just an emotionless android.
I loved Counterstrike, and have always remembered Jon Finch, I thought he was lovely. I was very disappointed when the series was cut short, and then Doomwatch appeared, which I considered inferior (Robert Powell was not in the same league as Jon Finch, in my opinion).
I agree. I wish we at least had all ten episodes of Counterstrike.
Hey rad article! I’m looking to find sources of content to provide to my hommies at LeathalWorld who love runescape and other games as well 😉 Anyways, hope to see more from you guys soon! Ohh and shameless shoutout to my gamers at Letahal http://go.cur.lv/LeathalWorld
I too loved this series and am disappointed to hear only four episodes survived. The girl sidekick was actually a female doctor. Jon Finch was injured and taken to hospital in the first episode and his alien physiology gave him away, so she followed him back to his spacecraft. I always remember the episode where his control referred to her as a pet canary because humans were so intellectually inferior.
Terrific! I love to hear memories of these forgotten shows!
Fantastic show!
I agree.
This had more imagination than most movies and tv shows today.
I agree.